At least 20 football fans have been detained in Moscow after mass brawls broke out over the weekend, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday.
Several clashes took place between fans of FC Spartak and FC Dynamo on the day of the Moscow derby Saturday. Footage showed scenes of violence on the Moscow metro and on other public transportation.
Authorities were reported to have opened a criminal inquiry into hooliganism.
Anti-extremism police officers and investigators conducted numerous searches at the fans’ homes in Moscow, five nearby suburbs and the central Russian city of Ufa, an unnamed source told TASS.
“Twenty people, fans of PFC CSKA, Dynamo and Spartak, were detained,” the source was quoted as saying.
Most of those detained will likely be released and called to testify as witnesses, the source said.
The authorities’ recent crackdown on hooliganism led Russian football fans to stage an unprecedented mass walkout in December. Fan groups have said the crackdown was the latest in a series of raids and mass detentions of fans in the past year.
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